An impression of commitment
by Kratzbesen
Summary: Irene had attained her goal, and she found herself in the company of the one who had accomplished it, Natsu. He, on the other hand, had lost everything. It is when she felt her new life beginning, and he felt his ending, that she decided to commit to him and help him regain what he missed. With her help, they will travel back in time and, along the way, find themselves grow closer.
1. Page — Liberation

**An impression of commitment**

Page 1 — **Liberation**

Irene did not want to admit it, but she was scared—even terrified! The amount of magic she witnessed was lethal, she knew.

A few meters in front of her, Natsu, in deep concentration, molded an enormous amount of magic. It manifested itself in a scorching aura around him that singed anything alive in close proximity. Irene could not discern whether the ground shook or her.

As she watched his aura expand further, cold sweat began to form on her forehead and in her palms.

Suddenly, Natsu inhaled. The blazing aura which he had formed, he consumed, and for a final attack, he leaned backwards.

In a desperate attempt, Irene held her staff protectively in front of her body, gripping it with a force that made it crack. "S-Stop," she begged in a timid voice and took a step back. "S-Stop! Don't do this!"

But it was too late.

" **Enryuuou no**..." Natsu snapped forward. " **HOUKOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOUU!** " And the moment he shouted, a blazing torrent of magic washed over Irene.

Her staff disintegrated instantly, and she felt something that she had not for centuries—she cried in agony.

But it did not last, for not a second later she fell silent again as darkness descended on her.

* * *

Irene startled awake, but winced with the movement. Her body felt battered and beaten and remained unmoved, but not for a lack of tries. She struggled to open her eyes, but her eyelids, too, refused her command.

Suddenly, she felt movement, but not her own. A weight was pressed against her left side and along her back. She was carried.

Irene tried to speak, only for a silent moan to escape her lips. Ultimately, she resigned to her fate and ceased her futile attempts.

It felt like hours before she tried again. This time though, her eyelids opened. It took a while and a few blinks before the shadowed veil above her eyes vanished and she identified her carrier, even though she had already concluded it to be none other than him.

After his attack, Natsu had noticed Irene had remained surprisingly unharmed, despite obviously being hit. Curious, he had moved beside her where he had promptly fallen to his knees, his physical exhaustion disallowing him to remain standing. He had first confirmed her to be simply unconscious, and had then proceeded to rest beside her, when, with the moment of ease, Natsu had come to realize that he was not sure what he had left.

Natsu had remained in this position for what felt like a long time, to contemplate, though honestly, thinking was not really his forte.

So, without thought, after he had felt some of his strength return, he had picked up his enemy and began to walk in an unknown direction.

Irene watched her carrier for some time. Natsu looked straight ahead as he walked along a forestal path. He did not spare her one glance, though she assumed he had noticed her stare.

Her mouth felt dry, so she ran her tongue along the roof of her mouth and swallowed the gathered salvia before she spoke somewhat unsteady.

"W-Why?"

He did not look down.

"I don't know."

And there was silence again.

Sometime later, when the sun began to near the horizon, and they were still within the forest, Natsu knelt down in front of a broad tree beside the path and gently leaned Irene against it. She watched him during the process, being surprisingly sedate, she herself noted, and continued to do so while his eyes roamed their surroundings.

"I'll be back," he said simply.

She believed him.

After Natsu had disappeared somewhere behind her, Irene took a first look down at herself. Her clothes were notably intact, although singed at some places. Sensing the lack of fabric between her back and the bark she leaned on, she surmised she must be without her cloak. Nonetheless, it was a miracle she was not naked after being hit by the Dragon Slayer's fire attack. Or, maybe it wasn't?

With her next thought though, she tried to move some of her extremities. Albeit with difficulty, she managed to lift her gloved hands in front of her face. They began to shake with the exertion. She could move her feet and legs, too, yet she dared not stand. And as she moved her limbs some more, she noticed something amiss. It was a sense much like that of a person before he pulled off his covers only to find his leg amputated. Irene could not explain what it was in her case.

She contemplated this and other things for an uncertain amount of time, until a rustling sound behind her informed her of Natsu's return.

He held under one of his arms a variety of tree branches and in his hand two dead rabbits with slightly burned pelts. He wandered to the middle of the forest path in front of her where there was a small clearing between the treetops and began to stack the wood to make a campfire.

With the help of his magic, Natsu had no difficulty to ignite the wood. When it started to crackle, Irene watched him skin the rabbits with an ignited finger.

Interesting.

"I've found a stream close by," Natsu said whilst he worked. "If you are thirsty, I can carry you there if you want. I have nothing to bring it here."

"I'm not thirsty."

He nodded.

By the time the sky was painted in an array of reds, oranges and violets, and the sun set behind the many tree rows, Natsu had finished to skin both rabbits and, in contrast to the soothing atmosphere, impaled them crudely with two long branches. With some force, he managed to stick them both beside the fire into the dirt, so that both animals hovered above the fire in order to cook.

With a whisper he excused himself and went to wash his hands at the stream.

Irene noticed she had watched the whole process with serenity. Even then she found her thoughts escape, simply watching and listening to the fire.

So again, time went by. Natsu had returned, sitting by the fire, and the small clearing was illuminated only by the flicker of the flames.

Natsu picked up one of the branches with a cooked rabbit and broke it into a fitting length. He stood up and handed it to the enchantress, who accepted it without comment.

She looked impassively at the cooked meat in front of her while Natsu had already returned to the fire. He leaned back comfortably on one of his hands and began to eat.

Without thought Irene took her first bite, too, and, with it, went rigid.

Slowly, as if unsure, she chewed again. Tears began to form in her eyes.

Then, as her head bent forward and she chewed again and again, her tears began to roll freely down her cheeks in an unbroken stream.

First, low sobs escaped her throat in between her chews, when suddenly, she began to cry like a person vomiting on all fours, not minding the bits of food that escaped her open mouth.

Throughout the day, Natsu had tried to pay his enemy only the minimum amount of attention, but hearing her sudden cries made his head snap in her direction.

"W-What's wrong!?" he asked alarmed.

At first, she did not respond, but when he was about to stand from his position, she slightly shook her head without raising her head. In between her heart wrenching cries she slowly began to chew again.

With difficulty Natsu continued to eat, trying to avert his gaze again, but failing.

These were not cries of sadness or pain; these were the cries of a person who had found something important again, something that had been lost.

Natsu had witnessed such tears once. They were the same as those Elfman and Mirajane had shed on the day Lisanna had returned.

Even when he had finished his meal and attempted to relax in front of the fire, sometimes throwing more branches into it, Irene continued to sob as she nibbled on her food.

It was only an hour or two later that Natsu noticed her fallen asleep, likely from exhaustion. He threw some more branches into the fire and then laid down himself. The truth was, he was exhausted beyond limit, but simply had not allowed himself to fall asleep before her.

Little did he know that Irene was not even supposed to be able to sleep at all.

* * *

Slowly, Irene awoke the next morning. It was an arduous experience. On her back, she felt the many pinching sensations from leaning against the bark of the tree where Natsu had positioned her last night. She decided to ignore them.

Irene slowly opened her eyes, and, with her lips slightly apart, turned them skywards. The moment she truly realized that she had slept throughout the night, her hands that had rested on her lap started to shake again.

From the corner of her eyes, she saw some of her food from last night laid beside her. With a desperate grab, she picked it up and bit into the cold meat. She chewed only once and propped her forehead on the one hand that did not hold her food. Again, she began to sob.

It had not been her imagination.

Natsu awoke to the noise.

He groggily pushed himself into a position to sit and rubbed his eyes. After he blinked a few times, he turned towards the sound.

When he found Irene in a similar state she had been in last night, crying and with her food in one hand, he frowned.

"What's with you and crying while eating?" he asked indiscreetly.

She remained in her position and shook her head again. "You wouldn't understand," she answered faintly.

Natsu shifted, but he remained silent.

After a few moments, he stood up.

"I'm going to the stream. Are you thirsty now?"

She gently rubbed her eyes with her gloved knuckle and, for what felt like the first time to him, slowly looked up from her position.

In that moment, the first rays of the sun decided to descended upon the clearing, accompanied by a gust of wind that ruffled the leaves on the trees creating a sound much like a surf. It was one of those moments that would forever be branded into Natsu's memory, for in that moment he saw the most elated expression he had ever seen.

"Yes, I believe I am!"

Her face was marred from the fighting, and it was stained by the tears she had shed—she was a mess; but her smile was radiant.


	2. Page — Moment

**An impression of commitment**

Page 2 — **Moment**

Natsu roused from his stupor. He walked up to Irene's side and wrapped his arms under her legs and back, careful not to become entangled in her thick braids.

She did not protest. In fact, she was oblivious of the notion that she was probably able to walk on her own again. At the moment, the elation from her discovery and the prospect to taste water preoccupied the majority of her mind.

Therefore, Irene, in turn, did not hesitate to raise her arm and loosely sling it around Natsu's neck for support when he picked her up.

Natsu lightly adjusted her weight, and carried her out of the clearing a second later. It was only a short walk to reach the stream, time both spent in silence, as Natsu, too, became preoccupied with his thoughts.

In his mind, the image of Irene's smile only moments ago had flashed before him, and, with the memory, Natsu could not help but be affected by what he had seen.

 _She can't be all that bad_ , he reasoned.

Uncharacteristically subtle, he stole a short glance at her face, which was so close to his, and felt his opinion only confirmed when he witnessed the eager expression with which Irene faced the stream they neared.

Feeling the sudden urge to say something, Natsu commented on the quality of the water.

"It's very clean."

Irene simply nodded, as her eyes remained transfixed on her objective.

When they arrived, Irene squirmed slightly in Natsu's hold, telling him to put her down. He complied immediately and lowered her feet onto the ground, mindful to support her weight until she had sat down on her knees before the running water.

Irene then leaned forward to look at her own reflection, but was disappointed to find the surface did not allow her to see her face with the currents too strong to reflect her image. She did, however, not need to see herself to recognize she probably looked a mess.

Irene ungloved her hands and immersed them into the stream. She had sweat quite a lot in her gloves yesterday, which reminded her to clean her hands thoroughly before she brought her head closer to the water's surface and washed her face.

Meanwhile, Natsu had gone a few meters downstream where he had slipped out of his sandals, rolled up his pants and stepped into the stream. Squatting down in the middle, he scooped up some of the water and stilled his mornings thirst.

Natsu inclined his head to the right, intent to wipe away the remaining moisture around his mouth with the fabric on his shoulder, only to observe Irene cup some of the stream's water in her hands and lift it towards her mouth. He watched her press her hands against her bottom lip, before she tilted them upwards and took a sip from the accumulated liquid. Following the action, Natsu was slightly taken aback when Irene raised her head with sudden elation. She stared in wonder at the water in her hands before she eagerly took the next one.

Natsu furrowed his brows. Why did this woman behave this way? She cried when she ate and was happy when she drank.

 _She is weird_ , he decided—not that he minded. It was more like he had difficulty to connect the mage he had faced off against with the person before him.

His eyes turned to the stone he held in his hands, which he had idly fished from the streambed to occupy his hands. With the help of his magic, Natsu began to dry and heat the stone before he dropped it back into the water. The contact elicited a short hissing sound.

 _Why did she attack our guild_ , he asked himself while he fished out the same stone again.

Had she simply followed Zeref's orders, or had she had her own goals?

They had fought, but, _I don't know anything about her_ , he noted.

What was it she had regained; what was the reason for her tears? At least, the person he had met yesterday evening and was with him today felt genuine, and he could not dislike that; after all, he had lost all reason to feel anger.

Meanwhile, Irene had stopped to drink from the stream and had straightened from her bent over position. Unbeknownst to Natsu, she had her head turned in his direction and observed him repeat his play in absentminded reverie.

 _I feel it's no coincidence that I am with him._ She mustered his face from the side and noted him to clench his jaw every time he rummaged for the stone inside the stream before his cheek muscles relaxed the moment he retrieved it. _I had been in contact with many magics since I've accompanied his majesty here, and I cannot eliminate the possibility that I've also been able to taste and sleep before it,_ Irene thought back to her fight with Natsu. She momentarily lowered her head, and her eyes wandered to the running water before her. _But, although uncertain, my instincts tell me it is him I have to thank for this miracle._

She then slowly turned her head again to look at the Fire Dragon Slayer, when, with a startle, she found their eyes meet.

It was a directness of gaze that bound time to the moment.

Within the moment a spark passed between two unsuspecting minds, which was thereafter not to be extinguished, while neither were to know the moment of its kindling.

The workings of time, however, would not allow even the most important of moments to last for long; thus, Natsu was first to pry his eyes away.

He stood, turned and walked out of the stream.

Irene, in turn, had averted her gaze the instant Natsu had and moved to put on her gloves.

On land, Natsu slipped back into his sandals.

And neither would look at the other.

"Can you stand?"

"Yes."

Irene then rose to her feet without much difficulty.

Getting a feel for her magic again, Irene looked down at herself and waved her hand once before her body. The second she did, her garb had repaired itself and appeared as good as new.

 _My magic feels different_ , she observed. _Could it be—!_

With the thought came a revelation, an observation she had made the evening before, but had put off as a temporary aftereffect of her weakened state. Irene had picked up fewer scents, she had seen shorter distances, and she had felt more vulnerable. In her current recuperated state, though, for these experiences to remain the same could mean only one thing.

She no longer possessed the senses of a dragon.

Irene knew she had tasted, she knew she had slept, but she had not thought further until now. She had not connected what she experienced since after her defeat with what truly was.

In every sense of the word, "I am human." The sentence escaped her lips like a wisp of wind carries through a grotto.

Natsu had come close enough for him to hear what she had said. He had avoided to look her way, but now looked at her back whilst she faced the stream.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Natsu asked confused. "Of course you are."

She did not turn.

"No, I—" She would not answer further, for her thoughts distracted her. _This explains why my magic feels different. My magic no longer possesses the attribute of that of a Dragon Slayer._ The dots slowly connected. _My dragon seed, and what it had turned into 400 years ago, is gone._

"I'm human," she whispered again.

"What are you talking about!?" Natsu could not help the slight irritation in his voice.

Irene turned and looked at him for the briefest of moments.

"I—never mind." She passed him. "Let's return to camp."

Natsu grumbled behind her, but followed her in subsequent silence nonetheless, with hands buried deep inside his pockets.

Little did he realize the distracting influence Irene had had on his formerly subdued demeanor.


	3. Page — Questions

**An impression of commitment**

Page 3 — **Questions**

Irene and Natsu walked in silence. They had left camp minutes ago and continued in the direction Natsu had went the day before, when Irene had still been carried by him.

Neither had uttered another word since they had been at the stream, largely because Irene had yet to come to terms with her newfound discoveries.

One of which was her human senses. She had yet to become re-accustomed to her new sight, hearing and smell; much to her discomfort. With no memory of how they had once been in her human years, and only her largely superior perception as a dragon to compare them to, Irene could not help but feel a certain amount of insecurity.

Additionally, Irene had probed her magic some more and found her earlier observation confirmed. Her magic no longer had the Dragon Slayer attribute.

Noting the time since she had perceived these changes on herself, Irene also affirmed her former intuition.

 _He is responsible; he destroyed my seed yesterday_ , she concluded, but remained perplexed. _When the dragon seed matures, it inosculates irreversibly into a human's very soul. Hundreds of years of research and this had always been the one hurdle I could not overcome._ Her eyes drifted to Natsu on her left. _Yet, he had succeeded in what I and his majesty had failed over centuries._ She frowned. _How?!_

Meanwhile, the silence had grown pretty awkward for Natsu. He had occasionally glanced over at Irene from the corner of his eyes and, once more, had thought her behavior to be very strange. She would stare into the distance, her eyes constantly shifting, and then his eyes would follow hers, and he would find nothing worth of note. The next moment she would close her eyes and turn her head in different directions, sometimes sniffing the air.

Subsequently, Natsu had buried his hands inside his pockets, feeling his irritation grew again. _Just what is wrong with her!?_

With furrowed brows he turned his head towards her, fully intent to finally ask her, when he found her to already look at him. The situation felt familiar—just this time, they were only an arm's length apart.

Both of their frowns turned to surprise the second they locked eyes, and snapped their heads in the other direction immediately after.

This time, Irene also felt the awkwardness of their stretched silence and decided to break it with one of the more casual questions that had been on her mind. "So, where are you going?"

He shrugged. "I have no idea."

She raised her eyebrows and stared at his side.

Natsu decided he should better elaborate. "I don't know where we are, but I can smell people in this direction," he said and pointed ahead. "It shouldn't be far."

Satisfied, Irene nodded her head slightly and broke her stare. "Would you want me to take a look?" she offered.

Natsu did not know how she was to go about it, and he admitted to be curious for half a second, but he declined nonetheless, "Nah, it's okay." Not to know where he went had something distracting, which he felt was much appreciated in his case.

Though, her initial question had reminded him of something he had kind of been frustrated about since the earlier stages of the war; which is why he then could not help but to let go of some of its pent up pressure.

"This is so confusing, I don't even know if we are in Fiore anymore!" he complained, glaring at his surroundings. "I don't recognize anything! All because of that stupid light!"

"That," Irene soon confessed, "would have been my doing."

Natsu raised one eyebrows at her, but he could not fully reign in his frown. _What's that supposed to mean?_

She noticed his questioning stare and subsequently held out her hand in a presentational manner. "World Reconstruction Magic: Universe One." She focused a tiny amount of her magic in said hand, and with a snap of her fingers the forest path before them broadened to double its width as far as the eye could see. "By enchanting the ground itself, I am able to manipulate the geography of the land however I desire. This," she said while she returned the path to its former size with another snap of her fingers, "was only a miniscule taste of what I had done days ago," she explained. "I had changed the land of the whole Kingdom of Fiore."

"Okay…" Natsu was not sure what to say to that, but he remained stoic. "So, can you return it to normal like you did with the track?"

She decided to be blunt. "No, I can't."

"Why not?"

"You see, in order for me to return everything to normal, I would need to know where every little tree, every patch of grass, every hill and every human structure was before I initially cast my magic," she clarified. "At the time, I was fighting Acnologia, our troops were divided and Fairy Heart was out of our reach." She gestured with her left hand as if she illustrated a point. "I cast the spell with the objective to bring his majesty closer to Fairy Heart, relocate Acnologia far away to the open sea, scatter your forces and gather ours to one point. Since I had known about the location of said things and people, I could relocate them according to my wishes, and theoretically could therefore return them to their former places; everything else though got scattered randomly, which I cannot undo it."

She glanced over at Natsu to see his reaction, but found him to show none at all; or maybe she just could not read him that well yet.

Natsu then conceded without expression, "Guess it can't be helped. It's not like I'd return to Magnolia anyway."

Hearing this reminded Irene of another subject she had been curious about. "So," she began, knowing full well what she would ask him, "you won't return to your guild then?"

And Natsu went rigid with the unexpected question. Irene stopped one step ahead and turned to wait for what he would say. Natsu cast his head downwards, his mob of hair shadowing his face.

"No," Natsu ultimately answered, "I won't. I can't."

"Perhaps," she mused aloud moments later, one finger at her chin, "are you considering suicide?" A cruel question.

The instant she had asked this, Natsu's head snapped up to her and he fixed her with a fierce gaze. "I would _never_ kill myself!" he declared; admittedly, not much to her surprise. Natsu looked away again the next moment and his expression turned somber. "I would never be able to face them again if I did," was his answer.

"I see," was all Irene replied before she resumed her walk, to which Natsu soon followed. "I apologize for asking," She did not sound very apologetic at all, "but you could say I'm an expert when it comes to feeling despair myself." If Natsu did not walk behind her, he would see a glimpse of a bitter smile, an expression on her face as if she had just bit into a lemon. Furthermore, Natsu also remained oblivious to what Irene had just implied. "I was just curious about your reaction," she told him.

Natsu did not respond to that.

"Say, Natsu Dragneel."

"Yeah?"

"How did you destroy my Dragon Seed?"

Okay, now things _really_ got confusing. "Huh?"

"How did you destroy it?"

"Destroy what?"

Irene could be patient. "My Dragon Seed."

"You have a Dragon Seed?"

"Had."

"And you think I destroyed it?"

"Oh, but I _know_ you did."

" _I_ didn't know."

"Very well." Irene stopped in her tracks, Natsu also stopping behind her. She turned and addressed him once more, "Natsu Dragneel."

"What is it?" he responded with slight unease.

There was a light shift in Irene's movement, which went unnoticed by Natsu, as she asked him, "Will you allow me to accompany you from now on?"

"What are you talking about?" he replied frowning. Another shift, but, "Aren't you already with me?"

She blinked, her eyebrows raised, but schooled her features rather quickly. "Right."

They continued on.

"By the way," Natsu then asked, "what was your name again?"

"Irene Belserion."

"Right."


End file.
